Multidisciplinary designer, Azzedine Alaia was born in Tunis, Tunisia in 1940, inspired by his twin sister love of glamour, so began his love for couture. His creativity was further influenced a French friend of his mother's who gave him copies of Vogue and aided in his acceptance into the local Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Tunis, where he studied sculpture, which allowed to gain valuable insights into the human form.

Azzedine Alaia_Spring 2009_Willy Vanderperre

Upon graduating, Alaia began working as an assistant to a dressmaker and soon began dressing private clients. In 1957 he moved to Paris to work in fashion design, where he worked for Guy Laroche for two seasons, then for Thierry Mugler until he opened his first atelier in his tiny rue de Bellechase apartment the late 1970s. By 1980 he had revealed his first ready-to-wear collection, moved to bigger location in rue du Parc-Royal in the Marais, and was named Best Designer of the Year by the French Ministry of Culture.